Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HURST

HURST, a liberty and a parish in Wokingham district, Berks. The liberty bears the name of Whistley-in-Hurst; lies 2¼ miles S of Twyford r. station, and 3¼ NNW of Wokingham; includes part of Twyford hamlet; and has a post office, of the name of Hurst, under Twyford, Berkshire. Real property, £4, 855. Pop., 1, 178. Houses, 251. The parish contains also the liberties of Newland, Winnersh, and Broad Hinton. Acres, 6, 845. Real property, £12, 733. Pop. in 1851, 2, 465; in 1861, 2, 630. Houses, 547. The property is much subdivided. The manor of Whitly belongs to Lord Braybrooke. Bearwood House is the seat of J. Walter, Esq.; was rebuilt in 1866; contains a fine collection of pictures, chiefly of the Dutch school; and stands in a large park of much beauty, and with much wild forest character. The living is a vicarage united with the chapelry of Twyford, in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £400. Patron, the Bishop of Oxford. The church is of various dates from the 12th to the 17th century; has a tower of 1612; comprises nave, large aisle, chancel, and chancelaisle; and contains an elaborately carved screen, a carved oak pulpit, two brasses of the 16th and 17th centuries, and a splendid monument to the widow of Sir Henry Saville of the 17th century. There is a chapel in Twyford, built in 1847. The rectory of Bearwood is a separate benefice. There is a large national school, an edifice in the Tudor style. There are also alms houses, with about £100 a year, and other charities with £341.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a liberty"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Hurst Ch/CP       Wokingham RegD/PLU       Berkshire AncC
Place: Hurst

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